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Darkest Timeline
"Life has gone to hell Abed! Look at us! Look at me!--''(Evil) '''Britta' "Britta, you put one wash away blue streak in your hair and I lost an arm."--''(Evil) '''Jeff' "Exactly! Life got dark!"-''-(Evil) '''Britta' In the Season Three episode "Remedial Chaos Theory" six different timelines are presented. They all branch off from the "prime" timeline based on the roll of a die that determines which study group member has to go get the pizza from the delivery boy. After a series of unfortunate events Troy's timeline is referenced by Abed as "the darkest timeline" in the episodes end tag. Chain of events In this particular timeline Troy races out to get the pizza shutting the front door very hard on his way out. The force of that causes the boulder of Abed's Indiana Jones diarama to roll off onto the floor. Shirley leaves the table to check on her pies in the kitchen. Jeff stops Britta from singing and she goes to the bathroom to smoke a joint. Pierce asks Jeff about his father making Jeff get up from the table to get a drink. Jeff hits his head on the ceiling fan and Annie offers to take a look at his injury in the kitchen. Annie trips on the still rolling boulder and falls onto the coffee table. Pierce's bottle of Serbian Rum which was resting on top of it goes flying. It crashes spilling rum all over the floor. After seeing Annie's fall Pierce quickly stands up to offer assistance and kicks his house warming present, The Norwegian Troll doll, right into Annie's purse. This causes the gun inside her purse to go off and shoot Pierce in the leg. Britta hears the commotion and stumbles out of the bathroom dropping the joint she was smoking onto the floor. The lighted joint lands on the floor where the Serbian Rum is igniting it causing a fire to break out. Annie goes to help Pierce as blood sprays out of his wound. The blood covers Shirley who had just exited the kitchen with her finished pies. Jeff tries to put out the fire while a disoriented Britta runs to the kitchen to get water to help him. Troy then returns with the pizzas. Shocked at the scene in fornt of him he notices the Norwegian Troll staring at him surrounded by flames. The aftermath of these events are shown in the episode's end tag: *Pierce has died from his leg wound *Annie is now under psychiatric care due to her guilt over what happened to Pierce *Jeff has lost an arm after trying to put out the fire *Troy severely injured his throat trying to destroy the Norwegian Troll doll by eating it while it was on fire *Shirley has become an alcoholic due to the above events *Britta dyed a streak of her hair blue (Which Jeff angrily points out is something she did, not something she experienced) The Abed of that timeline suggests that they somehow find a way to return to the "prime" timeline and replace the study group there. He cuts out black goatees from felt and passes them out to the other members to wear as a symbol of thier evilness. Most of the group rejects this idea, too traumatized by their own fates. However, Troy puts on his felt goatee, and him and Abed perform their signature handshake saying "Evil Troy and Evil Abed". Analysis The Darkest Timeline and the studygroups Evil personas seem to reflect what would happen to each of them if they took the darkest path (apart, obviously, from their physical injuries). Evil Pierce does not exist (because he died in the Darkest Timeline), which leads us to conclude Pierce was already evil, or at least malicious (Abed once pointed out that Pierce acted like a villain during the second season). As well, Pierce's exclusion from the group inadvertedly breaks the group apart. Evil Shirley has completely lost herself in alcoholism, as was shown in the episode where Troy turned 21. Evil Annie has relapsed into psychosis, which is exactly what you would expect her to do after episodes in which she acted batshit (the episode of the Dean's commercial, the episode of Abed's broken Batman DVD). Evil Britta is literally the least changed, but also the most, since she no longer serves as the heart of the group and has committed to being an outsider forever. Evil Jeff is absorbed by his own situation, as was seen in the episode where he had to live in his car, and lost his pretentiousness. Evil Troy can no longer speak and therefore can no longer convey his innocence.. and Evil Abed has given in to his own controlling side. Continuity In the episode "Contemporary Impressionists", Abed and Troy seem to be growing distant as Abed goes to play Inspector Spacetime by himself in the Dreamatorium. Once inside and traveling in his spaceship, Evil Abed appears to Abed with a fully grown goatee as opposed to a mere felt one, and tells Prime Abed he doesn't need Prime Troy, to which Prime Abed agrees. Evil Abed then introduces his version of Prime Abed's "Cool. Cool cool cool.": "Hot. Hot hot hot." It is widely suspected that Evil Abed is trying distance Troy and Abed and may somehow be behind the events of "Digital Exploration of Interior Design" and "Pillows and Blankets". The Darkest Timeline, as well as the events of the episode "Remedial Chaos Theory," were referenced at the end of "Course Listing Unavailable" when the study group meets at Abed and Troy's apartment. They order pizza, and when Toby the pizza guy rings the buzzer, Jeff suggests rolling a die to choose who will get the delivery. Abed wonders if he should have allowed Jeff to roll the die at the house-warming party, since in their prime timeline he caught the die before it landed, and considers that, the group having been expelled from Greendale, perhaps the prime timeline itself is actually the Darkest Timeline. Troy rejects the idea, insisting that they will all survive their expulsion since they're all alive and they still have each other. Hiatus When NBC anounced their mid season schedule for 2012 it was revealed that "Community" would not immediatley return and instead be put on haitus to comeback sometime at a later date. This was done to make room for the returning "30 Rock" to take it's 8:00 timeslot and to also try out the new show "Up All Night" on thursday from it's wendnesday slot. Fans of Community immediately began to refer to the haitus as "The Darkest Timeline". Many of them began internet campaigns championing the show and showing thier support on social networks sites with the rallying cry being #sixseasonsandamovie. On February 21, 2012 NBC made the anouncement that "Communtiy" would be returning March 15th returning to it's regular timeslot at 8:00. When it returned it had a 2.2/7 ratings among the 18-49 demographic, it's highest ratings since Season One. Meta references The Darkest Timeline is symbolized by black goatees which is a direct reference to the "Mirror Universe" concept in Star Trek first introduced in the episode "Mirror, Mirror" . In the story evil versions of the main characters exist in an alternate reality and that version of Spock is sporting a goatee. Category:Community fandom Category:Season 3